Tuesday, June 18, 2013

We first visited Tamil Nadu Bhawan canteen on a friend's recommendation especially to try their masala dosa and Biryani. After that, we went there a few times and enjoyed our visits there, till our most recent one a couple of days earlier.

We went to Tamil Nadu Bhawan for the first time with my parents who were visiting us. My parents had liked the food there. We had the South Indian thali, chicken biryani, mutton biryani, vada sambhar, chicken 65, mutton fry and not to miss their Coffee! We loved each of these items and in fact got some biryani packed to take home as well. Later, we revisited the place a couple of times with friends and each time our experience was really good. We introduced it to some of our friends and they too appreciated the food there.

A couple of days ago, we went to Tamil Nadu Bhawan again for lunch and the firsts things we ate there was a masala dosa with piping hot rasam. The rasam was garlicky and spicy and just apt for the rainy weather outside and the masala dosa and chutney was also awesome. I did not mention the sambhar because it wasn't good, seemed more like dal with veges in it. We then ordered Chicken 65, Parotta kurma curry, Sambhar Rice and Mutton Fry. The Chicken 65 was good but none of the others really made the mark. The Sambhar Rice came with a papadam and although it was not the best tasting sambhar, it could have been decent if it was hot. The Parotta was good but the kurma curry was actually vegetable stew that is usually served with appams. The mutton was not sauteed and fried like it is usually done and it was cooked to the point that the meat had fallen apart.

Overall, our meal did not meet our expectaion.

On asking the waiter he said that the cook had changed about 10 days ago and the new one was only getting into the groove.

So, if you plan on visiting the Tamil Nadu Bhawan it may be a good idea to wait for a few days till the cook gets his act together!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Today, this song fits the bill for the Delhi rains. It has been raining for the last 4 hours now and doesn't seem in any rush to stop. And nor are we complaining! What a respite from the killer heat we had for sometime now.

We went out for lunch today and saw a lot of roads water logged. The roads near Bhikaji Cama Place had about a feet of water and the water was flowing in waves especially when buses went by. The road at the gate of the Institute of National Health and Family Welfare had turned into a river and as we drove towards Munirka we saw that the water was gushing down into the slums. The drain outlets at the side of the roads did not seem to help much or the accumulated water was too much. We could not take the Munirka turn and had to take the flyover instead because the water level was so high our car would have stalled.

We were surprised that the roads here flooded with just a few hours of rain. I don't think Delhi has a good drainage system like in Mumbai. Also, I remember reading that many natural water bodies in Delhi did not survive the onslaught of modernization. They could have been natural rain water collection spots.

All things said, this was a welcome change in weather and a cup of tea and pakodas made our evening!